8 Skin Care Essentials You Need in Your 40's

This post is brought to you by USANA. All opinions are 100% my own. I wouldn't share anything with you if I didn't love it. Promise.
It's a big year for me. I'm turning 40. I've spent a lot of my adulthood putting other things in front of my skin care routine. I've been busy raising {and now launching} kids, volunteering in my community and starting my own business. All of life is hitting me as I enter into {dare I say it?} middle age. What was something I once neglected because I didn't think I had the time, {or maybe I thought I had plenty of time,} has left me without much of a skin care routine in place. I used to get away with the basics like using a daily moisturizer, maybe you did too, but I'm finding as women claw deeper into adulthood, those basics just aren't cutting it anymore. Which is why I put together 8 skin care essentials you need in your 40's. 

I've been working my way into a good skin care routine with all eight of these in the past few months, and I've noticed a definite difference in the way my skin looks. Heck, I even spend more days going without makeup now than I did when I was in my twenties. We've seen a lot of life my friends and our skin has been exposed to a lot of things, but not to worry, it's not too late to get started! Those of us with more {ahem} experienced skin, just need to have a multi-faceted approach to our skin care routine. I think I've got all the secrets so you are covered!

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Dr Pepper Float Recipe

Brought to you by Dr Pepper® and Albertsons Companies. 

If people ask me if I like sports, my response is usually, "If I know the people who are playing, I do." I started to watch football when I was in college. I had a season pass to the games and it was a fun time being in the stands with friends on game day. I even knew some of the college football players, so it was fun to watch my friends play and succeed out on the field. 

When my son started looking for universities to attend a few years ago, a sports team was high on his list. There is something fun about rooting for your college football team even years after graduation, a sort of camaraderie that continues to hold generations together. My son attends a university that is located in the same town that Dr Pepper® originated. They do weekly Dr Pepper float parties on campus and celebrate often at tailgate parties with Dr Pepper. We may be 2500 miles away from him on game day, but we celebrate at home by watching the game {and hoping we spot him in the stands!} while sipping on a Dr Pepper float. These floats make a great game day {or any day!} treat and I've got the super easy recipe for you! 

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Getting Your Yard Ready for Spring

This is a sponsored post written by my on behalf of Roundup® for lawns. All opinions are 100% my own.

If I tell people that I live in Seattle, the first thing I usually hear is, "oh, it rains a lot there, right?" It does, but you may be surprised to know that it actually rains more in Miami, Florida than it does in Seattle, Washington. Don't get me wrong, Seattle earns its rainy reputation, but only because we have many days of rainfall. Other locations get more rain, just over less days. But it's not really the rain that bothers me about our weather, it's the dark dreary days full of what seems like never-ending gloom. This year it's worse than normal and local weather stations are starting to take note. Since October, we've only had nine official sunny days. I'm pretty much over it and to say that I'm ready for spring would be an understatement. Because our doom and gloom weather is such a huge chunk of the year, I soak up as much time outside as I can when it's not pouring liquid sunshine on me. I'm constantly reminded of what a beautiful place we live in when the clouds lift and the sun comes out and I want to enjoy it when I can. Perhaps I end up appreciating it more once I come out of my hibernation. Spring is coming!  I'm sharing some tips on how you can start getting your yard ready for spring so that you can enjoy being outside and start using your yard as an extension of your home.

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Easy Snack Ideas On-the-Go

This post is written by me on behalf of Special K all opinions are 100% my own.



A wise friend once told me failure to plan is planning to fail. I think of that saying often as I try to plan my day. When the kids were younger, it meant making sure that I planned around the hours in which meltdowns may occur. It would involve scheduling around naps and making sure I packed snacks if there was a minute chance that a child may dissolve into tears over hunger, thirst or general moodiness. Now that the kids are in school, my hours during the day look a bit different. I run all of my errands between work hours and appointments and do my best to plan ahead and grab easy snacks for me so that I don't get hungry and end up buying something I don't need or will regret later. I've got a list of easy snack ideas for when you are on-the-go. That way, you can plan ahead and not fail if life throws you a curve ball.

from Sticherinny

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7 Tips for Starting a Skincare Routine with your Teen

This post was sponsored by Johnson & Johnson and I received complimentary products to facilitate my post. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions (FTC) guidelines concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I haven't been the best role model when it comes to a good skincare routine. I really didn't start any type of routine for myself until this past year. I've had great results and have turned over a new leaf, so I wanted to help my 14-year-old daughter start a skincare routine for herself so that she didn't start off creating bad habits. It was easy and a lot of fun for the two of us, so I thought I would share my 7 tips for starting a skincare routine with your teen that will start them off on the right foot for great skin. Now is the perfect time to start because through the end of March, Target is offering some can't miss in-store deals as well as Cartwheel promotions on everyone's favorite skincare essentials from Neutrogena, Aveeno and Clean & Clear. Not only can you help your daughter look her best, it will also save you money. 

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Pushing Reset With Jenny Craig

Thank you Jenny Craig for sponsoring this post. -- Get serious about losing weight with Jenny Craig!



I stepped on the scale at a doctors appointment and audibly gasped. I'm sure it wasn't the first time that the nurse heard a patient question the accuracy of the scale. Weight has never really been an issue for me. If anything, I hovered around the lower end of normal. Last February I was involved in a fairly serious car accident. Accident related injuries turned into chronic pain that the doctors couldn't put their finger on. For months I bounced between specialists trying to find the cause of my pain while trying to find my new normal with physical limitations. Before the accident, I was very active. I ran often, did strength training and made it a point to hit the gym five days a week. For months after the accident I was struggling to find a new routine. The medication I was on made me exhausted and one of the side effects was weight gain. It should have been no surprise when that scale showed a weight I had never seen before outside of pregnancy. 
I ignored the number as it crept up. I had frequent doctors appointments and I figured it was the heavy clothes I was wearing as the weather started to turn. Plus, the scale was probably just not calibrated correctly. I mean, it gets used all the time right? Wrong. The third appointment at the third doctor's office in one week confirmed that I had indeed packed on some pounds. I'm not quite sure why I didn't notice. My jeans were tight and rarely could I have them buttoned. Ten pounds, that's how much weight I had gained in just a few months.

Ten pounds really isn't that much, but I'm getting older and my metabolism is slowing down and well, if it was ten pounds in just a few months, what if it was twenty pounds in a year, or fifty pounds in five years. I needed a reset. I needed to re-examine my activity level, figure out my portions and take off those pounds that were slowing me down. I didn't want to mess with any fad diet programs. I needed to get real results that were going to last. If you need a reset too, come see how the first two weeks have been on the Jenny Craig program.

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Snickerdoodle Cookies with a Free Printable Label

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of McCormick®. All opinions are 100% my own.

I can't think of a Christmas when I didn't do some kind of baking. I love cookies and how easy they are to serve to holiday guests, which is why I think that they are a holiday favorite.  Not only are they easy to serve, they also make a great homemade treat to gift to friends and family. Today, I'm sharing with you an easy snickerdoodles cookie recipe. I love the buttery cookie taste with the cinnamon and sugar coating. Not only that, I love the smell of cinnamon baking in my home. Flavors and aromas have the power to transport you back in time or trigger memories. I think that cinnamon is the quintessential holiday scent of the season. I love using McCormick spices because that's what I remember using when I was a kid. That red cap always brings me back to my childhood!

I've even got a free printable label you can use when you gift your cookies. The labels make this holiday classic that much more festive and fun to give.

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How to Pick the Perfect Christmas Tree

Thank you to the Christmas Tree Promotion board for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.

I love Christmas. I look forward to the season all year long. I have fond memories of celebrating Christmas and all it's traditions when I was younger. Growing up my uncle had a tree farm. Our family would pile into the station wagon and drive a little over an hour to pick out our Christmas trees. Yep, plural. We usually had two or three live trees in our home each year. My mom liked to have a small one that had all of her pretty ornaments on it in our dining room. In our living room and often times in our parlor {seen below}, we had a 12-foot-tall tree. The home I grew up in was built in 1860 and we had TALL ceilings and lots of room! We would decorate the downstairs trees in the living room and parlor as a family and would put all of our kid ornaments and hand made creations on the bottom half of the tree.  Even with a step stool we couldn't reach too high!

In our living room, the Christmas tree would sit inside the bay window that had a built in seating area. It made the perfect ledge for my brothers and me to climb and walk 360 degrees around the tree. We loved to play in and around the tree so much so that one year we got a little too close and the tree fell crashing down. After that my dad started using several ropes to stake the tree to the wall and I'm pretty sure it was off limits to walk all the way around the tree after that. Looking at this picture, I still remember many of these ornaments. Some of them have even made it into my own collection that I put on our family Christmas tree.

This year our family Christmas was going to look a little different. Our oldest son is nearly 3000 miles away at college and we are all adjusting to him being gone. His absence means that our own family traditions are changing and evolving a bit. Sometimes change is good, but this year I wasn't really looking forward to the start of the holiday season. But, something awesome happened and we did something we haven't done in years!

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Create a Holiday Bacon Bar and Enter to Win a Year of Bacon

This is a sponsored post for Smithfield written by me. All opinions are 100% my own.

I think bacon is at an all time high in the popularity contest. I don't know a single person who doesn't love bacon. Not one. Which is why it's often at the top of my list as an ingredient in my holiday appetizers. It seems like friends and family are gathering often this time of year and food is usually at the center of it all. I am always looking for those crowd pleasers and bacon never disappoints! I've partnered with Smithfield to share some ways that you can treat your family and friends to easy-to-make, delicious bacon recipes. Smithfield has created a fun twist on holiday entertaining that you can recreate at home. It's easy for you to create your own Bacon Bar with free printable labels, decor ideas and recipe instructions so you can give your Bacon Bar a personal touch. You can even enter to win one Smithfield Bacon For a Year coupon booklet valued over $400! Just keep reading and I will tell you how!

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Free Printable Coffee Sleeve for a Friend

Nine. That's how many coffee shops I have located a stones throw away {or under a mile...I throw stones far!} from my home. My house isn't downtown, it's not in a high rise, it's located in a neighborhood in the suburbs of what might just be considered the coffee capital of the United States. Before I moved to the Seattle area, I never really drank coffee. I actually spent the majority of my three children's infancy and toddler-hood entirely uncaffinated. I'm actually wondering how I survived! Slowly friends started introducing me to coffee and it didn't take long before I fell in love. Coffee has become a daily habit that I enjoy. Most days I brew my own coffee, but sometimes it's nice to be able to take a walk to one of the local coffee shops in my area. Some of the coffee shops are more affordable than others, which is why I ended up at 7-Eleven this morning and I was surprised at what I found. I also think sharing coffee with your friends is one of life's best gifts. I have a free printable coffee sleeve that you can add to your coffee cup and gift it to a friend.

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